FROM THE BRIDGE

Visit www.savetheglacier.org if you have not already been there.

We need your help today! Please make a donation and sign the petition.

We have to motivate Congress and MARAD to save the GLACIER.

We have decided to make GLACIER a permanently moored museum ship in Miami at the “Notch” adjacent to the Miami Science Museum which just broke construction this month on a new 300 Million dollar complex. Glacier wishes to be a part of this success.

With only one month remaining until “The Mighty G/The Big Red One” heads to the scrap pile, the Glacier Society, an organization dedicated to the preservation, restoration and operation of historic vessels, has launched a $10,000,000 campaign to save the record-breaking icebreaker from destruction and transform her into an environmental museum.

“We are at a critical time in the life of the storied Glacier, perhaps more difficult than any passage the storied ship has made in unforgiving environments,” said Ben Koether, chairman of the Glacier Society, former Glacier navigator and discoverer of “Koether Inlet” in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica.

Once the largest and strongest icebreaker ever built, Glacier embarked on a record 39 Arctic and Antarctic deployments, exploring uncharted waters, conducting scientific research and providing safe passage to ships supplying U.S. outposts in frozen waters. Now Glacier is one of 58 vessels earmarked for destruction (all part of the Non-Ready Reserve Fleet located in Suisan Bay, CA.)

Koether, leading environmentalists and a team of dedicated Society members--many of whom are former Glacier crew members—have donated thousands of volunteer hours improving the Glacier at her mooring and raising funds to transport the Glacier to “the Notch”, a large deep water slip on the south side of Bicentennial Park in Miami’s downtown, where she will receive a new life as an interactive museum, educational facility and event platform for youth groups, historians and military reunions. A new science museum being built in the park complements and creates a synergy for both institutions.

“The fascinating life of this ship has a unique role in U.S. history and its future,” says Charles Green, founder of the environmental museum initiative and lead advisor to The Glacier Society. “No other ship afloat can speak so well to the environmental issues we face both locally and on a global scale, such as rising CO2 levels affecting the Polar Regions. The Glacier will be the most important museum in the world for people that want to discover information on environmental, oceanographic, polar and earth-sciences.”

Needing government approval to complete Glacier’s rebirth into a museum, Koether believes her historical significance and environmental importance will be recognized.

“We have never failed in our efforts and we are confident we will be able to continue, with the Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) support of the legislative right, extended to us by Congress to complete our transformation into a museum role. We look forward to honoring the Coast Guard that is crucial to our waters as well as becoming a world symbol of environmental progress,” concluded Koether.

To learn more about the U.S.S./USCGC Glacier, visit www.savetheglacier.org where visitors can read more of the icebreaker’s storied past, sign a petition, make a donation or volunteer in the effort to save her. All contributions are tax deductible.

Thanks,

Ben Koether

Special Thanks to Our Many Friends, Associations and Supporters

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

YOU NEED TO KNOW; WE NEED TO KNOW!

We recognize our responsibility to keep you well informed and up to date on the Glacier Society, the ‘Mighty G’ and our Youth Program. To do so we ask that you provide us with updated contact information for you and your family by going to the following link, entering your information and emailing it to us. If you prefer, you can print the form and mail it to Glacier Society, 905 Honeyspot Road, Stratford, CT. 06615.

Please add our email address to your address book or ‘safe list’ to prevent our emails to you from being returned or going into your SPAM/JUNK mailbox.

Thank you!

GLACIER SOCIETY

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